It's Not Over
by proudmarveltrash
Summary: AofU. 3rd story in Charlie Merrick series. After the Mandarin incident, Charlie and Tony both took some well deserved time off to recuperate. With Loki's scepter still missing and a few new enemies on the rise, however, Charlie's philosophy of 'Normal is Boring' begins to take on a whole new meaning- especially now that she's switched hacking for saving the world. TEMP HIATUS.
1. Prologue

Hello once again, and welcome to the third part of Charlie's story. If you haven't read my previous stories **Heaven Knows** and **Alone Together** , I highly suggest reading them before you begin this story.

First off: If you're still here after AT, _thank you._ I do plan on re-writing AT eventually due to the abrupt ending, but I have so many stories at once that I really shouldn't even be writing this one. I was just so excited to add Charlie to Age of Ultron that I had to get this out here.

Second: I hope this prologue explains what you missed between IM3 and AofU. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I'll answer as best as I can.

Without further ado- **It's Not Over**.

* * *

 **Prologue**

Normal is boring. Every angst-riddled teenager has declared it, every responsibility-addled adult has denied it, but the simple truth is that normal is, in fact, boring.

This is the precise reason Charlie decided against curing herself of the Extremis drug. Although it had been forced upon her by a man she was sure she'd despise for the remainder of her life, when Tony had promised to find a way to get it out of her system, she had suggested an alternative. Instead of removing the Extremis, they worked together to develop and stabilize it.

He had been completely against it at first, but after copious whining and other methods of persuasion not suitable for children, he had agreed to help her. Together Tony and Charlie made changes to themselves- she with the Extremis and he with removing the arc from his chest.

Over the next two years Charlie's powers becam controllable, and she slowly became more and more intertwined with the Avengers. 18 months after the Mandarin incident, she was made an official Avenger by Director Fury himself. For another 6 months after that, she and the Avengers continued the search for Loki's lost scepter.

Normal is boring. This very thought was on Charlie's mind as she walked into the living room of Stark Tower where all the Avengers had convened to discuss the next HYDRA facility they would be raiding. She had never heard of Sokovia, but soon enough it would become a place she would never forget.


	2. Chapter One

**IMPORTANT!**

To better understand what Charlie is capable of, I suggest you look up the Extremis virus. I'll be using the comic book version, which is slightly different than the MCU version. In the comic books, Tony actually kept the Extremis and tweaked it to be able to communicate with his suits. While I won't be using that specific feature, I will be using his modified version of the Extremis along with my own limitations/changes. This allows Charlie enhanced strength, speed, durability and healing, along with controlling her own body temperature up to incredible degrees. If you'd like to read more about it, you can find it on the Marvel wiki.

* * *

 **Chapter One**

 _"You've taken away everything that I can't do without. I try to to see the good in life but good things are hard to find. I tried to do it right this time around, let's start over, I'll try to do it right this time around."_

 _It's Not Over - Daughtry_

* * *

It was abundantly clear as we landed that Strucker knew we were coming. The second we hit the ground, we were flanked on all sides by his mercenaries. Steve started shouting orders, easily falling into his role of guiding us throughout the battle, and we flew into action.

Thor flew high into the air, already summoning lightning with Steve running on the ground in the same direction as the god. Bruce ran off into the forest to morph into the Hulk. Tony blasted a path clear for Clint, Natasha and I before heading for the facility. The former SHIELD agents and I rode in a black Jeep with Natasha at the wheel and Clint standing in the back, firing arrows.

I waited until we were in between two groups of soldiers before saluting Clint with a wink and jumping off the Jeep, tucking and rolling like I had learned to do after many earlier failed attempts that are never allowed to be mentioned again.

Nearly surrounded by men, I held my hands out in front of me, palms down and a smirk on my face. Even after so many months, I hadn't gotten over the high of no longer being the helpless hacker slipping out of jets and getting kidnapped by arch enemies. Thanks to the Extremis and the multiple variations Tony and I had worked so hard on, I was finally a force to be reckoned with, and I was not afraid to flaunt it. Especially in situations such as these.

Another change was that I had gone from being constantly ice cold to being the teams personal heater, according to Tony. While the rest of the team was decked out in heat-insulating body armor designed and created by our resident billionaire genius, he had gone a different route with my uniform. I wore an all black tank top, tights and boots with my hair- that I refused to let Natasha cut any shorter- pulled back into a ponytail with inconvenient strands slipping out and sticking to the sweat on my cheeks. The only color in my outfit was the orange bracelets I wore from my wrists almost up to my elbows. The bracelets tracked my core temperature and heart rate to make sure I never overheated. Tony and I had worked out most of the drugs' kinks, but we didn't want to risk what had happened to all the others who had been exposed to the virus happening to me.

When one group of men ran at me, I heated my hands and swept one over the snow in front of me, instantly transforming it all into murky water. As the men ran into the water, they slipped and tripped until at least half of them had fallen into the water. Thanks to my buddy Thor summoning a touch of lightning, they were taken care of soon enough.

Steve flew by on a motorcycle, dragging men along the way and slamming them against trees. Thor knocked down a watch tower, bringing at least ten soldiers down with it. Clint followed my lead by diving off the Jeep, bow and arrow at the ready to snipe incoming reinforcements. When I spotted the Hulk breaking through the forest line, I sprinted after the group with ease.

All at once we leapt from the hill we were on, landing tactfully and continuing our raid without once breaking rhythm. Every one of Strucker's men I came across was taken out, if not by myself then by a projectile flying in from one of my teammates.

Tony had gone straight for the facility to find a way in, but judging by the loud thud from his end of the comms followed by an equally loud, " _Shit!_ ", that hadn't gone so well.

"Language!" Steve chided. What a cutie patootie. "Jarvis, what's the view from upstairs?"

 _"The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield. Strucker's technology is way beyond any other HYDRA base we've taken."_

"Loki's scepter must be here!"

After dropping a soldier with two quick blows to the head, I took a moment to chuckle at Thor swinging his hammer mercilessly as men charged him from every direction, only for them to be sent flying with a single tap. "I'm pretty sure you got that one right, Charming. There's no way Strucker could keep up this kind of defense alone."

Thor- after knocking back every person who had tried to rush him- turned and nodded his head at me. "At long last."

"'At long last' is lasting a little long, don't you think, boys?" Natasha wasn't wrong. We had been on the hunt for Loki's scepter for close to seven months now, but every other HYDRA base had turned out to be a bust. Of course it was a good thing that we were knocking HYDRA out one by one, but we had never been so close to actually achieving our goal.

"Yeah," Clint sighed. "I think we lost the element of surprise."

"Wait a minute." You could practically _hear_ the smirk on Tony's face. "No one else is gonna deal with the fact that Cap just said _language_?"

"I know, it just... slipped out."

"Oh, that is _so_ not going away," I chuckled, jogging through the forest. I couldn't see anymore of Strucker's men nearby, and I didn't know if that should make me feel worried or relieved.

I had been running through a seemingly endless loop of trees when I was suddenly knocked off my feet by something I didn't quite see. Now on high alert, I jumped back up with my hands held out and at the ready, scanning the area. Everything was completely still except for the occasional ruffle of leaves caused by a silent breeze.

A loud groan and Natasha shouting Clint's name threw me out of my reverie. Ignoring whatever had hit me for now, I ran in the direction I'd heard her voice coming from and found her running towards Clint- who was lying on the ground much like I had only moment's ago.

"We have an enhanced in the field," Steve warned over the comms. I swear to God the second I opened my mouth to say something, Steve cut me off with, "Somebody other than Charlie." Damn him for interrupting my joke. Rude.

I caught up to Nat kneeling over Clint, leaning over his opposite side to help her drag him out of the line of fire. Only a few dozen feet away was a bunker shooting relentlessly at us. I would have gone after them, but the guns were completely shielded. "Does somebody wanna deal with that bunker?" Almost immediately after Nat asked, the Hulk came bounding out of nowhere and smashed the concrete building into bits. "Thank you."

Clint started groaning, and only then did I take a good look at his injury. _Ouch_. "Hey Wonderboy," I called to Tony over the comms. "We're kinda slipping out here. Anytime you wanna get the kids inside would be just darling."

"Yes ma'am," Tony replied with heavy snark- as per usual. "I love it when you get bossy."

"Can we please be serious? Just once?"

I rolled my eyes at Steve- didn't he know by now that I'm _never_ serious? If I can joke while dangling over a bit of burning oil, I can joke while invading HYDRA. That's what I bring to the team- burns. Both hypothetical and physical. Though the physical burns were intended for the enemies. Usually. What were we talking about?

"Drawbridge is down, people!"

Oh, right. HYDRA.

"Clint's hit pretty bad guys," Natasha said to the whole team while I swatted his hand away from the burn to keep him from infecting it. I would have tried to help more, but thanks to all the fighting my temperature was still high enough to have the snow I was standing on slowly dissipating. "We're gonna need an evac."

"I can get Barton to the jet," Thor offered. "The sooner we're gone the better."

"You really are Prince Charming," I sighed dreamily yet jokingly. Somebody snorted, and I could only guess that it was Tony. Even though we'd been dating close to three years now, that did nothing to stop my constant flirtatious nature- nobody was safe, especially not the thunder god.

An ear-splitting _clang_ rang out through the forest, the telltale sign that Steve and Thor were once again playing what I called 'Advanced Baseball'. The first time Thor almost hit Steve's shield with the hammer I had 'grounded' them, and made them separate into different corners of the quinjet. Ah, memories. Kids really do grow up too fast.

"Find the scepter!"

"And for _gosh sakes,_ watch your language!"

When Steve muttered something about the joke not going away anytime soon, I smirked at Natasha and mouthed 'called it'. She rolled her eyes just as Thor landed behind her, eyes trained on Clint to examine the wound. "How do you plan on carrying all three of us to the jet?" she asked dubiously.

Thor didn't seem to have an answer for that, but I most certainly did. I raised my hand, bouncing in place with an eager smile plastered onto my face. Nat looked reluctant to let me speak, but she pointed at me with a sigh.

A minute later- after sticking my hands into a large pile of snow to cool them down- I was clinging to Thor's back as he carried Clint in one arm and aimed us towards the jet with the other. Nat had opted for staying on the ground and getting to the jet later, which was completely fine with me. I was enjoying the ultimate piggy-back-ride.

Life as an Avenger is pretty awesome sometimes.


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

Natasha and Bruce were the last ones on the jet out of Sokovia, and once they were securely on board Tony took us up in the air. I watched with a little smile as Nat took Bruce to the back wall of the jet and sat him down, handing him his headphones. She always took such gentle care of him.

I was standing across from them next to Thor and Steve, and averted my gaze to join them in staring at Loki's scepter. I knew every one of us hated the thing for our own reasons- mainly Clint. He'd made a point out of sitting as far away from it as possible, which meant moving the cot he was laying on to the opposite end of the jet.

Natasha, who had been kneeling in front of Bruce while they muttered back and forth to each other, glanced back over her shoulder. "Thor, report on the Hulk?"

"The gates of Hell are filled with the screams of his victims," he answered a little too merrily, shaking one fist before clapping his hands together. Bruce moaned and dropped his head into his hands while Natasha turned back fully to Thor with her mouth gaping open and wide eyes. Steve and I turned to face each other with strained expressions, trying to hold back our laughter as Thor started to sputter out half-assed corrections. "Uh, but not the screams of the dead of course. No, no, uh... _Wounded_ screams, whimpering... mainly, uh. A great deal of complaining and tales of sprained deltoids and uh... and gout."

I patted Thor on the shoulder with a sympathetic smile. "Smooth, Lancelot."

"Hey Banner!" Tony called back from the pilot's seat. "Dr. Cho is flying in from Seoul. Is it okay if she sets up in your lab?"

"Uh, yeah. She knows her way around."

"Thanks." Tony told Jarvis to take the wheel before stepping out of his seat and joining us at the back of the jet. He came up behind me and poked my ribs, carefully stepping out of the way when I tried to slap his hand away. With a wink he stood where Thor was between the two of us before speaking up again, following our example of staring down at the scepter. "Feels good, doesn't it? I mean, you've been after this thing since SHIELD collapsed. Not that I haven't enjoyed our little raiding parties, but..."

"But this," Thor finished for him. "This brings it to a close."

"As soon as we find out what else this has been used for," Steve added. "And I don't just mean weapons. Since when has Strucker been capable of human enhancement?"

Tony nodded, scratching his beard with a thoughtful expression. "Banner and I will give it the once-over before it goes back to Asgard." He looked up at Thor, raising his eyebrows. "Is that cool with you?" When Thor nodded, Tony continued. "Then just a few days until the farewell party. You're staying right?"

"Yes, yes of course." Thor slapped a hand down on the case holding the weapon. "A victory should be honored with revels."

"Yeah, who doesn't love revels?"

"Revel rebels," I chuckled to myself. All three men turned to me with the same tired expression- none of them ever appreciated my brilliant sense of humor. "Oh, screw you guys, that was funny."

Steve shrugged, which I took as a compliment seeing as it wasn't outrightly negative. "Well, hopefully this puts an end to the Chitauri _and_ HYDRA, so... yes," he smirked. "Revels."

"Hooray!" I cheered quietly, softly clapping my hands. "I love parties."

"Revels," Tony corrected with one finger pointed at me. I rolled my eyes and waved him off, dismissing the difference between the two.

Our small group dispersed to random seats to wait out the ride back to Avengers Tower. I joined Tony at the front with him sitting in the pilot's seat while I leaned my back against the wall on his right. When there was nobody around to make funny of Tony for being mushy, he took my left hand in his and flipped it over so that the back of my hand was resting against his palm.

He did this after every fight, and it was both endearing and annoying. The tiny screen that sat on my wrist displayed my temperature and heart rate, and he flipped back to check the readings for the battle. We both knew what would happen if I overheated, which is why he was so cautious.

"See?" I pointed towards the screen. "Nothing happened. Even if something did, you would have known."

One feature he had added into the bracelets was that if my temperature reached critical degrees, it alerted Jarvis who in turn alerted Tony. "I know," he answered. "Just making sure everything still works."

"Better be careful Tony," I warned teasingly. "Your soft side is showing."

He scoffed, dropping my wrist. "I'd have to have one first."

"Mhm." I rolled my eyes and left the cockpit to return to my seat, contemplating taking a nap until we reached New York.

* * *

When we landed Clint was rushed out of the jet by Natasha and a few of Dr. Cho's helpers. Bruce followed after them and Thor picked up the scepter before heading out himself. I had just woken up and was rubbing the sleep from my eyes when Maria walked in with a tablet tucked under her arm. "Mounty!"

Maria flashed me a small but genuine smile before turning to Tony. "Lab's set up, boss."

Tony turned around in the pilot's seat and pointed at Steve. "Oh, actually _he's_ the boss. I just pay for everything, and design everything, and... make everyone look cooler."

Steve stood from his seat at the same time I did and walked over to see the tablet Maria was holding. "What's the word on Strucker?"

"Natives got him."

"The two enhanced?"

"Two?" I mumbled to myself, trailing after them on the very tips of my toes and peering over her shoulder to see what she was showing him. "Nobody tells me anything."

Steve flipped to a photo of two kids that looked at least seven or eight years younger than me, followed by a video of them shouting in a language I didn't understand surrounded by other screaming people. "Wanda and Pietro Maximoff," Maria explained. "Orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building. Sokovia's had a rough history. It's nowhere special, but it's on the way to everywhere special."

"Well that's all grand, Mounty." I slipped in between the two of them and took the tablet from Steve to look over their photos. "But what about the nitty gritty, hmm? What do these two actually _do_?"

"He's got increased metabolism and improved thermohomeostasis. Her thing is neuroelectric phasing, telekinesis, mental manipulation."

I nodded along, understanding most of what she said. When you spend the better part of three years around Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, you learn a few things. Knowing what they could do only made me want to meet them. Steve, however, looked nothing short of completely bamboozled. I chuckled to myself about the word 'bamboozled', and Maria's short-and-sweet explanation didn't help my laughter.

"He's fast, she's weird."

Steve nodded, understanding that, and stepped inside the elevator. "Well, they're gonna show up again."

"Agreed. Files say they _volunteered_ for Strucker's experiments. It's nuts." Oh, that _is_ interesting. Now I _really_ want to meet them.

Steve slapped the button for the floor he wanted to go to before turning to face Maria and I with a cheeky smile. "Right. What kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?"

I slowly turned towards Maria with my eyebrows practically reaching my hairline and let out a low whistle. She tilted her head slightly in my direction, but must have decided against saying anything as she refocused her attention on Steve. "We're not at war, Captain."

"They are."

As if one cue, the elevator doors slid shut with Maria and I left standing there. It took my a second to realize that my jaw had practically dropped to the floor. When I did realize it, I looked back and forth between the elevator and Maria a few times before clapping my hands together. "Well, that was dramatic."


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

Two days after returning home, I'd finally put the finishing touches on the party Tony had asked me to help plan. And when I say 'help plan', I mean 'plan for him because he had locked himself away in the lab with Bruce for reasons still unknown'.

This, of course, wasn't going to fly with me. If there is one thing I know about myself, it's that I can never keep my nose out of everyone else's business. My craving for being in the know is what landed me in a lot of sticky situations- such as ever meeting the Avengers in the first place. So it wasn't always a bad habit, necessarily.

Regardless, I hadn't seen Tony or Bruce leave that lab in almost 48 hours and despite Steve's insistence that they were just busy studying the scepter, I was finished with waiting around for answers and set out to find them on my own. So after Natasha finally finished picking out a dress for me to wear to tomorrow's party, I made my way to the very top floor of Avengers Tower to find my two little Science Bros.

Not bothering to knock, I rounded the corner and walked in on a suspicious yet oddly adorable situation. Bruce was standing in front of one of the many computer screens in the lab that displayed countless rows of numbers and what looked like a visual representation of a computerized brain. Tony was sitting on the floor behind him with dozens of papers spread out in front of him, rubbing his mouth the way he always did when he was deep in thought.

I cleared my throat to draw their attention, and this was the suspicious part. Bruce swiped his hand to the side, minimizing the equations he had been running and turned to face me with one fist tucked under his chin and the other pressed palm-down on the nearest table. Tony scrambled to pick the papers up for only a second before giving up and dropped onto his stomach in a feeble attempt to hide their content from me. With one eyebrow raised in confusion, I crossed my arms over my chest and waited for the excuses to start flowing.

"Oh, hi Charlie!" Tony chuckled. "What brings you up here? Shouldn't you be downstairs working on the party planning?"

"I finished," I answered simply before nodding my head towards the papers Tony was currently sprawled out on top of. "What are you hiding over there, Pink Panther?"

"I resent that nickname for innumerable reasons," Tony pointed out with one finger lifted in the air before pushing himself off the papers. "And if they were any of your business, I wouldn't be keeping them from you, now would I?"

Instead of answering, I turned my questioning gaze to Bruce and held up three fingers. "I'm going to countdown from three, young man, and if I don't have an answer by the time I'm finished, there will be serious consequences. Three."

Bruce sighed and pulled the monitor back in front of himself, causing Tony to point at him with a threatening expression as he pushed himself to his knees. "Don't you dare sell me out, Banner!"

"Two."

"I'm warning you, Big Green!"

"Tony and I are trying to start up the Ultron program using Loki's scepter." Tony dropped onto his back with an annoyed groan, burying his face in his hands, causing Bruce to wave his hands uselessly in front of himself. "She deserved to know, Tony!"

I planted my fists firmly on my hips, shooting both of them my best disapproving glare. "Let me get this straight. You two dummies were trying to set up an advanced interface using technology far beyond your understanding that's more than likely incredibly dangerous... and you didn't invite me?"

"Wait, wait a minute," Bruce shook his head while Tony sat up with a grin. "You _agree_ with this?"

"Of course she does!" Tony jumped to his feet and hurried to my side wrapping his arms around me and laying his head on my shoulder. "She's like me, but not as smart, rich, or handsome."

I pinched Tony's cheek before pushing his head off my shoulder and walking over to his disorganized notes scattered across the floor, kneeling down to pick a few up and look them over. "I may not be as smart as you science-wise, Wonderboy, but I am _definitely_ better with computers. And judging by your lack of knowledge in the area plus your limited time frame, you really should have brought me in earlier. Besides," I looked back at Tony over my shoulder, "remember what happened last time you tried to solve all your problems without me?"

Tony scoffed and shrugged, but he knew what I was talking about- that nasty little Malibu incident with Scary Orange and whatnot. "Are you gonna help or not?"

"Of course I'm gonna help." I scraped up as many notes as I could and carried them over to the monitor displaying the scepter's inner workings and dropped them onto the table. Before beginning any actual work, I turned back to Tony with a scolding look. "And don't try to keep me out of the loop next time, or there _will_ be consequences."

"Ooh, consequences." Tony waggled his eyebrows with a smirk while Bruce pretended to gag behind him. "Yes please."

I rolled my eyes and turned back to my new project, thinking of the best way to harness an immeasurable amount of energy into an army of robots.

* * *

Things went on like this for the next 18 hours, I worked with Tony and Bruce on every possible solution and variable we could think of, but to no avail. Eventually it was almost time for the party to start, and we were no closer to an interface than when we had first started. Bruce looked like he was about to pass out, so I gave him a quick pat on the back. "Why don't you go take a nap before the fun-tivities start, Brucie?"

"I'm too tired to question your word choices," Bruce sighed, rubbing his face as he nodded slowly. "Yeah, I'll do that. Keep an eye on Tony, will you?"

"Anything for my favorite doctor. Go on."

I waited in the same spot until Bruce was completely out of the lab before walking over to where Tony was staring at the scepter with a blank expression. I knew he was upset, but he was just as bad at showing it as I was at trying to comfort him. So instead of saying anything, I simply stood in place and waited for him to speak first. Luckily, he did.

"What did we miss?"

"I have no idea." I bit my lip, furrowing my eyebrows in thought. "I really hate this thing. All it ever does is frustrate me. It's very un-swanky."

Tony chuckled once under his breath before letting out a deep breath. "There has to be something we didn't try. Some variable we missed."

"I'll continue to run variations on the interface," Jarvis offered overhead. "But you two should probably prepare for your guests. I'll notify you if there are any developments."

"Thanks, buddy."

"You're my favorite," I told Jarvis, looking up slightly towards the ceiling. "Don't tell the other kids though. They might get jealous."

"Of course not, madam."

Tony took one moment longer to stare at the scepter before snaking his arm around my waist and leading us both out of the lab. "Come on. We don't want your party planning skills to go to waste."

"We can just get drunk out of our minds and see if that stirs up any new ideas," I suggested with a small shrug.

Tony squeezed me closer to his side with a chuckle. "I knew I loved you for a reason."


	5. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four**

The party was in full swing, the entire floor filled with friends and business associates. I didn't even know the better part of them, but considering I wasn't a very social person anyway, that didn't matter much. Luckily, the dress Natasha had put me in had a short and loose skirt that made it easier for me to maneuver my way through the throngs of chatting and laughing people. I bounced back and forth between different groups, stopping for a few minutes to talk when I bumped into somebody I knew.

Thanks to running into Thor and Steve a while back, I was already tipsy enough to have slipped out of my heels, choosing carrying them around with me as opposed to falling on my face in front of all these people. I was more balanced these days thanks to a certain virus, but I still wasn't taking any chances.

At one point during my random travels, I found Rhodey's phone sitting on the edge of the pool table and picked it up. Looking over the room, I saw Rhodey standing in front of Maria, Thor and Tony, telling one of his War Machine stories. I managed to sneak up behind him right at the end, holding up my fingers to my lips to shush the group from alerting Rhodey to my presence. "So I pick up the tank, fly it up to the General's palace, drop it at his feet and say-"

" _Boom!_ " I shouted, causing Rhodey to jump practically 10 feet in the air, almost spilling his drink. Thor and Maria were poorly hiding their chuckles behind their drinks while Tony made no attempt at all to conceal his laughter. When Rhodey looked back over his shoulder to glare at me, I smiled innocently and handed him his discarded cell phone. "You lookin' for this?"

Rhodey snatched the phone out of my hand before slipping it into his jacket pocket. "Why do I even talk to you guys? With everyone else that story kills, and nobody tries to give me heart attacks."

"It was a very good story," Thor offered, sipping out of his glass. "Very impressive."

"Quality save," Rhodey nodded sarcastically.

"Don't worry, Scrappy Doo." I patted Rhodey's head, causing him to glare at me mercilessly- even though he knew at this point that I would never change. "Mama still loves you, even if you are the runt of the litter."

"You know we're not your children, right?" Maria asked, glancing at everyone in the group before returning her gaze to me as I shrugged. "Charlie, it is very important to me that you understand we are not your children."

"So, Charming!" I quickly changed the subject, tapping my glass to Thor's arm to catch his attention. Talking to him this close up was always such a hassle thanks to my miniature height, and he made a point out of looking down dramatically whenever we did speak. "Where's Janey Dear tonight?"

"Actually, I'm not even sure what country Jane's in. Her work on the convergence has made her the world's foremost astronomer."

"And what about Pepper?" Maria added. "Where are all the _ladies_ tonight, gentlemen?"

"Headed for the bar," I answered, downing the rest of my drink and winking at Tony before backing away from the group. "Remember, bedtime is two. Don't be late, or you're all grounded."

Walking away from the small group, I heard Tony and Thor arguing over who had the superior girlfriend and Rhodey explaining to Maria that 'bedtime' was code for the afterparty, reserved specifically for Avengers and Pals.

Natasha was acting as the resident bartender, looking as stunning as always lit up by the light red underglow of the bartop. I dropped my shoes onto the bar and sat in one of the spinning bar seats, twirling myself in a circle before stopping myself by slapping my hands down on the counter and smiling at Nat. "Hello, gorgeous."

"Charlie," she greeted with a small grin. "I see you've been drinking this evening."

"Not nearly enough." I smirked and raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to catch my drift. Of course, she understood immediately and shot me a mocking glare of disapproval before turning on her heel to make me a drink. "You know me so well, Nat. Have I ever given you a nickname? I should give you a nickname."

"That won't be necessary."

"Nat you just don't _understand_." I took the drink from her when she offered it, tipping it in thanks before taking a sip and setting it down in front of me with a delighted sigh. It tasted like cherries- just like my beloved lollipops. She knew me so well. "Being given a nickname is like a rite of passage. Now, let me think... Nat..." I knit my eyebrows, staring at the wall behind her head in concentration. "Black Widow... Russian... Spiders... Charlotte's Web! You're Charlotte!"

Natasha raised one eyebrow, crossing her arms and leaning on top of the counter. It took me longer than usual to understand why she was looking at me like that, but when I realized what I had said, I burst into a giggle fit. "Oh, wait. _I'm_ Charlotte! Charlie. _Right._ "

A figure stepped into my peripheral vision, and I tilted my head to the right to see that Bruce had joined us. "Brucie! Perfect!" I jumped off my seat, snatching my heels in one hand and my drink in the other. "I'm gonna give you two some _alone time_." I winked dramatically at Natasha before leaning into Bruce's shoulder and mumbling, "Go for gold, Gaston."

Bruce shot me a worried look as I pat his shoulder and wandered off, searching for another person I could hang out with. Tony and I had been trying to secretly set up Bruce and Natasha for _months_ , and I took every chance I got to push them closer together.

The next person I came across was thankfully as drunk as I was, and I made a spectacle out of showing it. Throwing my hands up into the air- resulting in a small splash of my cherry drink spilling out of the glass and dribbling down my wrist- I smiled widely at the approaching man. "Clint, my baby!"

Clint chuckled, shaking his head. "Charlie, I'm _not_ your baby. You've been very motherly lately. It's very-"

I dropped my heels and slapped my hand over his mouth, shushing him. "Shh. It's bedtime, Frankie."

Clint rolled his eyes and pushed my hand away from his mouth. Ever since I'd found out his middle name was Francis I'd officially nicknamed him Frankie. Like many of my nicknames, nobody else used it. "It's not going to catch on, Charlie."

"I will make fetch happen!" I shouted and glared at Clint before giggling. "Mean Girls reference. I love that movie. But neverthenone... less... what? _Bedtime_."

"Definitely," Clint agreed before picking my heels up off the ground and wrapping one of my arms around his shoulder to help lead me up the stairs. Along the way, he would stop by our friends whenever he saw them and tell them it was time for the afterparty. One by one, we all slowly trickled up the stairs and into our private living room for what I was sure would be an even more fun time than the current party.


	6. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

As everyone found a place to sit among the two small couches and three chairs we had set up for the party, I pulled Thor to the side and whispered- at least I hoped I was whispering, I couldn't control my volume very well after a few drinks- a plan I had come up with earlier for what I described as 'the best prank Midgard has ever seen'. He chuckled at the suggestion before agreeing to it, causing me to clap happily.

After a quick high-five, Thor and I joined our friends in the circle they had created around the coffee table filled with Chinese food and drinks. He sat next to Steve on the left couch while I joined Rhodey and Tony on the opposite couch, snuggling into Tony's side and closing my eyes contentedly. He sighed as if he was annoyed, but I knew it was just because we were around our friends. Still, I kept my eyes closed as I reached up and flicked his cheek, to which he responded by pulling me closer against his side and poking me harshly in the ribs. I grabbed his hand and pulled it around me like a blanket to stop him from poking me again, tugging my feet up under my legs and resting my head against his chest.

The rest of the group found seats and continued to eat and drink while they were joking, and I might have fallen asleep were it not for the rumbling in Tony's chest as he laughed at a joke I hadn't heard. To keep myself awake, I pushed myself into an upright position and grabbed a random glass of water off the table, holding it tightly to avid dropping it due to the condensation dripping down the sides.

"Come on, man!" Clint twirled a chopstick in his hand, before pointing to Thor's hammer with it. Apparently the joke I had missed was about Mjolnir. "It's a trick!"

"No, no," Thor shook his head, pouring a drink for both himself and Steve before leaning back into the couch. "It's much more than that."

Clint snorted before holding his hands out dramatically towards the hammer that was resting at the end of the coffee table in front of Thor, deepening his voice to sound more theatric. "Oh, _pfft_. He whoever be worthy shall haveth the _power_. Whatever, man! It's a _trick!_ "

"Please," Thor offered, gesturing towards the hammer. "Be my guest."

Everyone in the group turned to face Clint at the same time, and he nodded enthusiastically as he pushed himself off the floor. Rhodey mumbled something about this being beautiful and the rest of the group situated themselves into better positions to see if this would work.

"It's all right buddy," Tony reassured Clint, waving the hand I wasn't holding flippantly through the air. "It's been a rough week, we won't hold it against you if you can't get it up."

Clint gestured at Tony menacingly with his chopstick while everyone else chuckled before dropping it onto the coffee table and grabbing the handle. "You know I've seen this before." Thor nodded once, and Clint grunted as he tugged on the hammer. He tried for only a few seconds before letting out strained laughter and planting his hands on his hips. "I still don't know how you do it!"

"Can you smell the silent judgement?"

"Oh, please!" Clint motioned for Tony to take his place, stepping back and making a show out of bowing. "Be my guest, Stark, by all means."

Tony raised an eyebrow at the challenge before turning to face me, since I was still draped against his side. I huffed out of mock annoyance before pushing myself off of him so he could stand. Always one for being the center of attention, Tony unbuttoned his jacket while everyone 'ooh'ed and 'ahh'ed mockingly as he sauntered over to the hammer. "Never one to shrink from an honest challenge. It's physics."

"Physics," Rhodey scoffed.

"So if I lift it," Tony asked, sticking his hand through the wrist strap and wrapping his hand tightly around the handle, "I then rule Asgard?"

"Yes, of course."

Tony nodded, apparently satisfied with the wager, and winked at me with a smug grin. "I will be reinstituting prima nocta." I rolled my eyes and shook my head to show just how unamused I was by his joke- though admittedly it was a little funny. And maybe a bit of a turn on... though that may be because I was drunk.

However, his plans for Asgard didn't matter considering even with one foot pushing against the table and pulling as hard as he could with both hands, Tony failed to even budge the hammer. "Be right back."

Tony returned moments later wearing the hand of his Iron Man suit, but even with the built in flight stabilizers the hammer wouldn't move. After that failed, he made Rhodey go and find the hand of his War Machine suit to help him. Yet again, they failed to lift the hammer. "Are you even pulling?" Rhodey groaned.

"Are you on my team?"

"Just represent, _pull_!"

Bruce was the next to try and lift the hammer, seeing as this had quickly turned into a 'Who Is Worthy?' contest. He mimicked Tony's earlier position of pushing one foot against the coffee table and pulling with both hands, though he added his own touch of shouting and stepping back, waving his arms out by his sides to mimic Hulking out. "No?"

I looked around at the group and saw that they all wore matching expressions of being unimpressed. Always willing to stray from the majority, I clapped lightly for Bruce's performance. He gestured towards me with a mumbled thanks before returning to his seat next to Natasha.

Up next was Steve, and everybody cheered him on as he stood from the couch and stared at the hammer with an apprehensive smile. After rolling up his sleeves and shrugging to himself, he wrapped both hands around the handle and took a deep breath before heaving upwards. To everyone's mutual surprise, the hammer let out a tiny squeak and budged just small enough that we all had to wonder whether it actually moved or not.

When he tried again, however, the hammer remained firmly in place and Thor chuckled nervously, shaking his head. "Nothing."

Bruce held his hands out towards Natasha. "Widow?"

"Oh, no," she laughed, shaking her head as she held a beer bottle up to her lips. "No, that's not a question I need answered."

After Natasha's refusal, I stood from the couch and twirled my hands in a circle before placing them firmly on my hips. "Don't hurt yourself, honey," Tony teased as I made my way over towards the hammer. I glared at him and stuck my tongue out before kneeling down and staring intensely at the hammer.

Multiple comments were made from the group as I inspected Mjolnir, such as "She's not gonna do it," and "Quit stalling!"

I took another second to examine the weapon just to piss them off before nodding my head definitively. I turned to Thor and placed one hand lazily on the handle. "Does the offer of ruling Asgard stand for me as well?"

"If you can lift it," he agreed with a nod.

Without another word, I swung the hammer up and handed it to Thor, who took it easily from me. I winked at him as he laughed, while the rest of the team stared in stunned silence. Of course, they had no idea that Thor and I had pre-planned our little prank and that I couldn't have possibly lifted that hammer for the life of me, or that Thor had simply called the hammer to his hand while I held it uselessly, giving me the appearance of lifting it- but they didn't need to know that right away.

After Thor took the hammer from me, I turned on my heel to smile innocently at Tony. "I'm sure you'll make a beautiful queen of Asgard, Wonderboy."

"There's no way," Tony immediately denounced. "It's rigged."

"You bet your ass," Clint agreed with a huff before swigging his beer.

"Steve, he said a bad language word!" Maria accused, pointing at Clint.

Steve stared disbelievingly at Tony, shaking his head. "Did you tell everyone about that?"

"Are you surprised?" I asked, dropping back into my seat.

"I got it," Tony snapped his fingers before pointing at the hammer that Thor had returned to its place on the table. "It reads fingerprints. You put Charlie's fingerprints in it to fool us." He glared teasingly at me, wagging a finger like I was a child being scolded. "Naughty girl. Do you need to be punished?"

I chuckled and hummed happily, ignoring everyone's groans of disgust as I leaned in and pressed my nose against Tony's with a small giggle.

"You're seriously gonna tell me that Charlie is more worthy than the rest of us?" Clint scoffed, shaking his head and taking a long swig of his beer. "I don't believe it for a minute."

Just after I pressed a quick kiss to Tony's lips and was leaning in for a second one, a sharp ringing pierced the air and caused me to involuntarily flinch backwards, covering my ears in an attempt to shield myself from the awful sound.


	7. Chapter Six

**Chapter Six**

" _Worthy_ ," a jumbled robotic voice drawled, followed by clanging footsteps. All of us stood from our seats and turned to face the noise while Tony pulled his thin glass remote from his jacket pocket to see why one of the broken down Iron Legion robots was clambering its way into our private party. "No," it said in a clearer voice, turning slowly to face us. "How could you be worthy? You're all killers."

"Stark," Steve said without moving his eyes from the bot.

Tony tapped the remote against his palm a few times. "Jarvis?"

"I'm sorry I was asleep," the bot apologized before shaking its head in a nonsensical fashion and turning to stare at us with its glowing eyes. "Or... I was a dream. There was this _terrible_ noise and I was tangled in... in _strings._ " It staggered about, going to touch its hand to its head before realizing it didn't have a hand. "I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

"You killed someone?" Steve asked, raising his eyebrows and taking the slightest step forward.

"Wouldn't have been my first call," the bot shrugged lazily. "But down in the real world, we're faced with ugly choices."

Thor stepped slowly closer to his hammer when the bot wasn't looking. "Who sent you?"

There was a rewinding sound before Tony's voice played through the speakers built into the robot's shoulders. _"I see a suit of armor around the world."_

Everyone turned to face Tony at the same time with the same expression- they wanted answers. Bruce was the one to answer the unspoken question, however. "Ultron..."

"In the flesh!" Our attention was diverted to readying ourselves for a fight as the robot forced our attention back to it with its outburst. "Or no, not yet. Not this... Christmas. You see, I'm on a mission."

Maria's gun quietly clicked at the same time Thor lifted his hammer from the table, and I spread my fingers out to start heating them up while Natasha asked it, "What mission?"

"Peace in our time."

The wall behind the bot crumbled as two fully functional Iron Legion bots burst through it, and the rest of us only had seconds to react. Steve flipped the coffee table up in front of us while Maria and Rhodey dropped to the floor. Natasha grabbed Bruce by the hand and pulled him behind one of the couches. Thor swung his hammer at one of the incoming bots, and Tony ran off to where I couldn't see him anymore.

Clint was blasted over the railing by one bot, but before it could fly down after him I used the couch as a spring and jumped off the back of it, grabbing onto the robot by its neck and burning through the metal under its chin. I shoved my hand all the way through its head until I reached its circuit board and ripped it out, crashing into the floor with a harsh thud and it on top of me when it shut down.

When I pushed the broken bot off me and sat up, I saw that Steve had followed in my footsteps and was flying on the back of his own bot, trying to shut it down by ripping wires out of its neck. I rolled under the railing, dropping to the first level of the floor that was being quickly turned to rubble by the unexpected battle, and saw that Natasha and Bruce were running away from their own bot.

By the time I saw Tony climbing the railing, he had already kicked off and jumped onto the bot that was chasing down Nat and Bruce to distract it. After pushing myself back up to my feet, I ran over to the bar and jumped over it, grabbing the hidden gun underneath before hurrying over to where I had just seen Clint hide. I twisted behind the pillar he was kneeling behind and handed him the gun, an action he thanked me for with a nod before cocking the gun and stepping out of hiding to start firing.

I looked out from behind the pillar and saw that Tony was still attempting to dismantle the same bot from before. "Tony, shut it down!"

"One sec!" he yelled back while all the remaining robots started chanting, _"We are here to help."_

I ran back up the short flight of stairs, grabbing Steve's shield on the way. "Heads up, Cap!" When he turned to look at me, I tossed the shield his way just in time for him to decapitate the robot that had been trailing after him.

 _"It is unsafe."_

I pivoted on my heel at the sudden voice behind me, stumbling backwards from the surprise. Thankfully, Thor stepped in and sent the bot flying back into a wall, causing it to shatter into pieces. "Nice timing," I praised breathlessly, patting his shoulder.

With all of the Iron Legion either shut down or turned to scrap metal, the scattered team all turned to look at Ultron. "That was dramatic," he commented, looking over the destruction. "I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to _change_. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to evolve? Look at these." He lifted one of the bots from the ground that was only a torso, crushing its head in his hand before dropping it again. "These _puppets._ There's only one path to peace. The Avengers extinction."

Too fast for me to notice even though I was standing right next to him, Thor had thrown Mjolnir with full force at Ultron, causing him to crash back into the wall and join the rest of the Iron Legion in bits on the floor. As he powered down, the lights in his eyes dimmed and oil leaked out of his head like blood- his robotic voice crackling. _"I had strings, but now I'm free."_

The room was quiet while we waited to see if any more enemies were going to come soaring in out of nowhere, but once I was sure we were safe for now, I let out a sigh and ran a hand over my forehead and back through my hair.

"What... was _that_?" Steve asked tensely, jaw clenched as he looked back and forth over every member of the team.

Nobody answered, likely because nobody knew exactly what it was. Bruce, Tony and I knew what it was _supposed_ to be, but none of us had any idea what it had actually become. I was the first person to move, walking over to where Tony had landed on the floor and grabbing his hand to help him stand up.

"Thor, some of them made it out. Follow them." Steve instructed, walking forward and picking up one of the few robots that was still in tact. "Stark, Banner. We are going into your lab, and you are going to tell us exactly what that was."

Without waiting for an answer, Steve started in the direction of the lab with the robot remains in his hand. Thor called his hammer back and flew out one of the already broken windows while everyone else came back to their senses and followed after Steve.

* * *

Inside the lab, Bruce sat at one of the computers to see what all Ultron had gotten into while we were having the party. The rest of the team was scattered around the room, leaning against walls or sitting against tables while Tony stood in front of the robot carcass Steve had dropped onto the table in the middle of the room.

"All our work is gone," Bruce said disbelievingly. "Ultron cleared out. He used the Internet as an escape."

"Ultron," Steve muttered, shaking his head.

"He's been in everything," Natasha concluded. "Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other."

Rhodey crossed from one end of the room to the other, sitting next to Maria and holding his injured shoulder. "He's in the Internet. What if he decides to access something a little more _exciting_?"

"Nuclear codes," Maria sighed, and Rhodey nodded.

"Nuclear codes. Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."

"Nukes?" Natasha crossed her arms over her chest. "He also said he wanted us dead."

"He didn't say dead," Steve corrected. "He said _extinct._ "

Clint leaned against the metal railing across from where I was standing. "He also said he killed somebody."

Maria plucked a piece of glass out of the bottom of her foot and plopped it onto the table. "There wasn't anybody else in the building."

"Yes there was." Tony walked into the middle of the room and tapped his remote against the air, opening up what used to be the visual representation of Jarvis, but was now a flickering orange mess. Even though he was just an AI system, seeing him so dismembered sent a chill down my spine that broke my heart.

I walked up to the image with my hands slightly out in front of myself, shaking my head. "Why would he do this?" I asked no one in particular, trailing my hand down the trembling hologram. "He was supposed to be a protector, not..."

"Jarvis was the first line of defense." I looked at Steve over my shoulder, but turned back to Jarvis when I saw the empathy mixed with anger in his eyes. "He wanted to shut Ultron down, it makes sense."

"No," Bruce disagreed, joining me next to what was left of Jarvis. "Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy, this is... rage."

Loud footsteps called my attention towards Thor as he marched into the room, features set into a grim look of determination. All sympathetic thoughts towards Jarvis disappeared from my mind as Thor gripped Tony by the throat and lifted him from the ground, staring coldly as everyone quickly stood from their seats.


	8. Chapter Seven

**Chapter Seven**

"Come on, use your words buddy," Tony groaned, tapping Thor's hand that was wrapped around his throat.

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark," Thor replied in a level, deep voice.

I stood uncomfortably, working my mouth open and shut to say words that refused to come out as I clenched and unclenched my hands into fists, looking around the room nervously. I didn't do well in tense situations, so I was just wishing for somebody else to take charge and keep all responsibility a safe distance away from me.

Luckily, Steve stepped forward so that I didn't have to. "Thor. The Legionnaire."

Thor glared at Tony for one second more before dropping him to the ground and turning to face Steve. "Trail went cold about 100 miles out, but it's headed north. And it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, _again_."

"Genie's out of that bottle," Natasha sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Clear and present as Ultron."

"I don't understand." Dr. Cho looked over the remains of the Iron Legion, shaking her head before turning back to Tony. "You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"

Tony tapped his fingers quietly against the table, staring at his computer for a moment before he started to chuckle. Bruce, who was standing next to him, started shaking his head vehemently and mumbling, "Mm-mm," repeatedly. I raised one eyebrow and clicked my tongue, internally questioning if Tony was finally losing it.

Thor glanced at the other Avengers who were all watching Tony with confused and tired expressions before pointing lazily at him. "You think this is funny?"

"No...?" Tony turned to look over the group, skipping over me when I started to wave my hand frantically in front of my neck- the universal signal for him to quit before he dug his grave any deeper. "It's probably... not? This is very terrible- is it? It- it is. It is _so_ terrible."

"This could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand."

"No!" Tony interrupted Thor in the middle of his sentence, moving to stand in the center of the deformed circle of Avengers, holding his hands out towards Thor. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, it _is_ funny. It's a _hoot_ that you don't get why we need this."

"Hey," I called, snapping my fingers to pull Tony's attention back towards me. "Hon, maybe now would be a good time for you to _shut the fuck up._ "

"Yeah," Bruce agreed, slightly drawing out his words. "Tony, this might not be the best time-"

" _Really?_ " Tony asked in a high-pitched voice, glimpsing at both Bruce and I with exaggerated disbelief before pointing at Bruce. "That's it? You just roll over and show your belly every time somebody snarls?"

"Only when I've created a murder bot!"

"And you!" Tony ignored Bruce's last statement, wagging his finger at me. "You practically designed the entire schematic for Ultron, and you got pissy with me-"

"Pissy?"

" _Pissy_ ," Tony reiterated, "-when I was going to make him without you! But the _second_ everyone else says it was a bad idea, you just turn on me like that," he finished, snapping his fingers.

I shook my fists down by my sides, shifting awkwardly on my feet as I whisper-yelled at him, avoiding the stares of everyone else in the room. "I don't like confrontation!"

"Well guess what, Princess!" Tony gestured around the room, defeating the whole purpose of me trying to avoid looking at them. "We are being confronted! You can't always avoid everything just because it doesn't fit into your perfect little image of what the world should be!"

I sputtered meaningless noises, gripping my hair and bending my knees before stamping my feet like a child and pointing at Tony accusingly. "You are such a hypocrite! You can build 100 fucking suits when you don't wanna talk to me, but I can't change my mind when we try to build a robot and it ends up _fucking bonkers_?"

"We didn't do that!" he disagreed, matching my climbing volume level. "We weren't even _close_ to an interface!"

"Well you did something right," Steve finally cut in. "And you did it right here. The Avengers was supposed to be different from SHIELD."

Tony twirled in a slow circle on his heel, shaking one hand above his head. "Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?"

"No," Rhodey shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

"Saved New York?"

"Never came up."

"Recall that? A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space, we're standing 300 feet below it." Tony shouted, looking back and forth at all of us before dropping his hand down and slapping it against his thigh. "We're the _Avengers_. We can bust arms dealers all the live-long day, but that up there? That's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating them?"

It was quiet for a moment while everyone considered that question, but as the ever-morale-boosting leader of the group, Steve was the one to answer. "Together."

Tony stared at him blankly, with no hope in his voice or expression. "We'll lose."

"And we'll do that together too." Tony watched the Captain for a second longer before turning his back, averting his eyes to the ground as Steve continued speaking to the rest of us. "Thor's right. Ultron's calling us out, and I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller."

After his small speech, Steve smacked his hands back against the table he'd been leaning on before pushing off and walking out of the lab. One by one, the rest of the Avengers followed in silence until only Tony and I were left standing at least six feet away from each other in tense silence.

This is exactly why I hate non-physical confrontation- nothing good ever came of it. What had started as a seemingly brilliant idea had ended in all of us acting as if we were still under the influence of Loki as we bickered over what was right and wrong.

I'm not good at being serious, or at dealing with situations that couldn't be easily solved by a stupid pun. Thanks, eight years with minimal human contact! Cough, sarcasm, cough.

Unsure of what else to say, I kicked my foot against the ground and sighed deeply before licking my lips and looking up at Tony. "I don't have a perfect image." He looked up from the floor with one eyebrow raised in questioning and his hands shoved deep inside his jeans pockets. I shrugged uncomfortably, pursing my lips to the side. "I don't have a perfect little image of what the world should be. The world is a shitty place filled with shitty people who do shitty things. I know that. I _see_ that. I don't... I don't have a perfect image, I just... I don't know." I scratched a nonexistent itch on my cheek and tucked my hair behind my ear, tangling my fingers in the ends of it. "I like to pretend that I don't see it. There are enough sad people in the world. Sometimes pretending that the bad things aren't there make them easier to deal with."

Tony nodded slowly for a moment, seeming to consider what I had said for a minute before he spoke. "But they are there. All those bad things that you pretend don't exist are out there, hurting people. You're okay with just ignoring that?"

I breathed in a deep, shaky breath with tensed shoulders, averting my eyes back to the ground with dark thoughts swirling at the back of my head. "Sometimes people don't want to be saved."

"Sometimes people don't want to be saved?" Tony scoffed and shook his head. "Wow. That's... that's beautiful, Charlie. Really. Very poetic."

I closed my eyes while Tony marched out of the lab, and I imagined that he would have slammed the door if there was one. People always slam doors when they're angry.

The familiar unwelcome warm tingle at the back of my neck made me close my arms in around myself as it crept down my spine. It had been a long time since I felt so anxious, and more than anything I wanted it to go away. Breathing deeply and evenly, I rubbed my hands harshly across the back of my neck and over my face with a groan.

My buzz had quickly disappeared over the past hours, but luckily there was always more alcohol to be found in Avengers Tower. With everyone scattered to brood over the situation in their own way, I made my way out of the lab and off in search of my favorite vice.


	9. Chapter Eight

**Hey guys, so sorry for the extended wait! I had some personal issues to take care of that prohibited me from having any real sit-down time, but hopefully they've been well taken care of and I'll be returning to my update schedule of posting a chapter every day/every other day.**

 **As an apology/thank you for waiting so long, here's a chapter twice as long as usual that shows some things... well, you'll finally get to see into Charlie's past. Fair warning.**

* * *

 **Chapter Eight**

I was pulled away from my drinking and self-deprecation only and hour later by Natasha, who knowingly replaced the alcohol in my hand with an unwrapped cherry lollipop and gestured towards the door leading out of the living room. "Come on," she encouraged when I groaned from my seat on the couch, not wanting to deal with the people I had just argued with. "Nobody is going to yell at you. We're just trying to figure out where to go from here, and I'm not going to let you sit here drinking while the rest of us are working."

I pursed my lips into a pout and waved the hand that wasn't holding my candy flippantly in the air. She rolled her eyes at the motion, but grabbed my hand firmly in hers anyway before pulling me to my feet and leading me out of the room while I licked the treat in my hand. She really did know me better than anyone.

The room she took me into had everyone except Steve and Clint inside, though they entered shortly after we did. Natasha dropped my hand to sit down at the computer in the middle of the room and set to work looking for anything Ultron might have left untouched.

Tony ignored me completely as he brushed past me to stand at Steve's side, looking down at the tablet in his hands. "What's this?"

"A message," Steve answered. Thor took the tablet from his hands and smacked it against Tony's chest while the rest of us closed in, curious to see what the 'message' was. Bruce and I stood on the tips of our toes at the same time, glancing over Steve and Thor's shoulders to look down at the image as Steve finished. "Ultron killed Strucker."

"Is that Strucker's blood?" I asked, staring at the bold red PEACE painted above Strucker's limp head. "Ultron really isn't messing around."

"This is a smoke screen," Natasha interjected, leaning back in her seat. "Why send a message when you've just given a speech?"

"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss."

Natasha nodded at Steve's suggestion, sitting back up to tap a few keys on the computer. "Yeah, I bet he... Yep. Everything we had on Strucker's been erased."

"Not everything."

We all turned to Steve, but he offered no further explanation before turning on his heel and marching out of the room. Confused and curious, the rest of us followed after him through darkened hallways into a relatively untouched room. He flipped the light on as we walked in, and what looked like hundreds of old-fashioned cardboard boxes were illuminated.

At the realization of what we were going t have to do, I pulled the Blow Pop out of my mouth with an audible _pop_. "I'm really a lot better with computers."

My complaint was largely ignored as the team set about unshelving boxes and tossing lids to the floor, digging through piles of paper for any information that Ultron would have been unable to keep from us. I moaned with annoyance and shoved the candy back in my mouth, mentally grumbling about hating paper as I pulled a box off a shelf and dropped it onto a table before dropping the lid next to my feet.

"Look for any known associates," Steve instructed. "Strucker had to have had friends."

Bruce lifted one file out of its box and grimaced at its contents. "Well, these people are all horrible."

Right as Bruce closed the file to throw it onto the pile collecting on the floor, Tony pointed at it. "Wait, I know that guy." He took the papers from Bruce and flipped through them, nodding his head. "Yeah. Back in the day he operated off the African coast, black market arms." Steve gave Tony a look, to which he defended, "There are conventions, all right? You meet people. I didn't sell him anything. He was talking about finding something new- a game changer. It was all very Ahab. But this, uh, tattoo... I don't think he had it."

"No, _those_ are tattoos." Thor trailed his finger over the picture, indicating the multiple tattoos covering the man's arms and back before pointing towards his neck. " _This_ is a brand."

Bruce glanced at the photo before walking over to the computer and pulling up the same image. "Oh, yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning 'thief', in a much less friendly way."

"What dialect?"

"Wakanada?" Bruce guessed when Steve asked, adjusting his glasses and narrowing his eyes at the screen. "Wa-Waka... Wakanda."

Tony looked at Bruce's monitor before turning back to Steve. "Think this guy got out of Wakanda with some other trade goods?"

"I thought your father said he got the last of it."

"What trade goods?" I asked, dropping the papers I had been holding back into their box. "What's in Wakanda?"

Steve looked back over his shoulder, and we all followed his gaze to see his shield leaning back against the wall. "The strongest metal on earth." He turned back to Tony with a grave expression. "Where is this guy now?"

* * *

Only a few hours later, we were landing the quinjet on the murky African Coast to confront Klaw about his vibranium stash. Suited up and ready for business, all of us except for Bruce left the jet behind to board the docked ship where Klaw was hiding.

"Stark, Thor and I will confront him head-on," Steve planned out loud when we neared the entrance to the ship. "Clint, you take the high ground with your bow. Nat and Charlie, you two come in from either side and make sure he doesn't get away."

We all nodded our agreement as we entered the ship, and split up to follow Steve's orders. While he and Thor walked straight through the suspiciously abandoned boat, Tony flew up above them to check the upper decks. Clint climbed the nearest staircase, and Natasha went to the right while I snuck against the wall to take the left flank.

I had just made my way over to walkway on the left side of a broken window when I heard the familiar robotic voice of Ultron shouting at somebody. "Don't compare me with Stark! Stark is- he's a _sickness!_ "

"Aw, junior." Tony dropped onto the metal bridge connecting the office to the opposite pathway with a _clang_ , Steve and Thor standing on either side of him. "You're gonna break your old man's heart."

There was another echoing vibration as a clear tube containing vibranium was tossed to the side by Pietro Maximoff, who I was seeing for the first time in person. His twin sister Wanda stepped next to him, and Ultron moved to stand in front of the both of them while I took a step back into the shadows. "If I have to."

"Nobody has to break anything," Thor argued. _Well, actually-_

"Clearly you've never made an omelet."

I gaped at Ultron, internally debating whether I was angry he stole my mental quip or if I was proud that something I helped create had a sense of humor. "He beat me by one second," Tony commented, confirming my theory that Ultron's humor came from the two of us.

"Ah, this is funny Mr. Stark?" Pietro walked forward with a small smirk, motioning towards the weapons littering the floor below us. "It's what- comfortable? Like old times."

"This was never my life."

"You two can still walk away from this," Steve offered, stepping forward.

"Oh, we will," Wanda nodded with a smile.

"I know you've suffered-"

" _Ugh_." Ultron groaned before chuckling, shaking his head. "Captain America. God's righteous man. Pretending you could live without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth-"

"If you believe in peace, then let us keep it."

Ultron turned to Thor when he interrupted, tilting his head to the side. "I think you're confusing peace with quiet."

"Uh-huh," Tony nodded towards something behind Ultron that I couldn't see. "What's the vibranium for?"

"I'm glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to discuss my evil plan." As Ultron finished his sentence he reached forward and gripped the air, locking onto Tony's arc reactor and pulling him forward before shooting him back into the wall with streams of electricity.

Iron Legion bots came crashing through the windows above us, immediately attacking Steve and Thor as Ultron and Tony took off through the air, struggling with each other before Ultron knocked Tony out of the boat through one of the shattered windows and flew after him.

Just as Steve decapitated one of the robots with his shield, Pietro sprinted forward so quickly he became a blur and tackled Steve to the floor. Wanda cupped her hands together, summoning some form of red energy before blasting Thor into the same wall Tony had already dented.

When Wanda took a step forward, I rushed out of hiding to knock her to the ground before she could fire at Steve- who was struggling enough as it was at the moment. We hadn't come here expecting to fight Ultron or the twins, meaning we didn't exactly have a plan in place for what we were supposed to be doing in this situation and we were going to have to improvise.

I slammed my shoulder into Wanda's side, and she shouted in surprise before hitting the metal path with a groan. "Yeah, don't touch my friends."

I didn't even see Pietro coming before he was already in front of me, and I was thrown back over the railing. The wind was knocked out of me as my back collided with a stack of wooden crates, and I saw Pietro standing over me. "Don't touch my sister."

He had disappeared again in the next second, and I sighed as I rolled off the crates to get back on my feet, cursing out the little asshole in the back of my mind. And as if the twins weren't enough to deal with, only moments after I was standing again a group of men came charging in firing machine guns. "Great," I whispered to myself as I ducked behind cover. "Now there's these guys."

I waited for a few of them to run past me before I revealed myself, jumping out and wrapping my hand around the back of one of their necks. I whipped him around and kicked the gun out of his hand before shoving him forward so that he stumbled into his friends, knocking the lot of them to the floor where Clint started firing arrows at them.

Fortunately, they were taken out relatively easily and I was able to turn my attention back to more important matters. Unfortunately, however, the second I nodded at the pile of men on the floor and turned around, I was startled to see that Wanda was standing only inches away from me.

Before I had the time to react, her eyes flooded with red and she touched her fingers to my forehead, giving me an immediate dizzy feeling as she backed away and disappeared from my sight.

I staggered forward with unsure footing as a dark red mist crept in at the edges of my vision, and the world grew darker and my thoughts muddled incoherently. Eventually, the blacks and reds that clouded my eyes were replaced by a faint yellow light shining down from above me, revealing a large wooden door in front of me.

Almost instinctively, I twisted the dirty golden knob and pushed the creaking door open as I stepped inside a dim room that smelled of cigarettes and stale popcorn. Closing the door as quietly as possible behind myself like I had been taught to do, I crossed the carpeted floor with light footsteps with my fingers trailing along the wall covered in small dents and chipped paint.

I could hear the television playing on low volume in the living room in front of me, casting flickering lights across the hallway I walked through. Usually when the TV was this quiet, it meant that my dad had fallen asleep in front of it. Taking a small comfort in this fact, I allowed myself a sigh of relief as I took my hand off the wall.

"Where were you?"

My blood ran cold as my comfort revealed itself to be a lie, and my father's gruff voice sounded on my left through his open bedroom door. Turning my head so that I was facing him but keeping my eyes on the floor, I tried to keep my voice as steady as possible. "At the library."

"Look at me when you're talking to me, Charlotte."

I looked up at my dad, hating the fact that he stood almost a foot and a half taller than me. My mom always told me that I would hit my growth spurt eventually, but all the other kids in my grade were already hitting anywhere between 5'5 and 6 feet tall, while I remained seemingly forever at my measly 5'3. "At the library," I repeated, looking into his forest green eyes that mirrored my own.

"Why were you out so late?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

The truth was that I had been caught up once more in my never-ending fascination with their computers, seeing as my own had given out on me recently and I still had been unable to fix it. I knew he wouldn't appreciate that answer, and I was grateful to my mother for stepping out of the kitchen at this point so I wouldn't have to come up with a lie.

"Hey, baby," she smiled. "Why don't you come help me out in the kitchen? I could use your help putting the dishes away."

"I'm talking to her right now, Catherine," my father answered before I could. "Did she tell you she was going to be out after 9?"

"Yes," my mother lied for me. I assumed normal teenagers would appreciate this sentiment, but it only made me cringe in fear as my father's arms dropped to his side. He always knew when she was lying, and he was always angry afterwards.

"Go to your room, Charlotte."

"Dad-"

His hand landed on my shoulder with a tight grip, and I froze mid-sentence as he leaned down to be eye-level with me. "Go to your room, Charlotte."

I glanced at my mother from the corner of my eye, stepping out of my father's grasp when she nodded. My bedroom was on the other side of the living room, and my muscles stayed tense the entire eternity it took to get out of arms reach from my father. My mother stopped me when I passed her, smiling down at me and pulling a cherry flavored Blow Pop out of her pants pocket. "Here, baby. I'll come see you before I go to bed."

I nodded at the assurance before continuing the walk to my bedroom. I could already hear my father whispering angrily, so I quickened my pace as much as possible without drawing attention to myself and closed the door behind myself as I entered my room.

Once I was alone, I wasted no time in ripping the wrapper of the lollipop and discarding it on the floor, popping the candy into my mouth and pulling my small computer case out of my closet to rest it in the corner. I tossed the lid of the box to the side and pulled out multiple computer parts that I had been working on for the last two weeks or so.

At the sound of my father shouting something, I tucked my knees up to my chest and pushed myself further into the corner, clutching the wire-filled circuit boards to my chest as I fumbled through the box for my pliers.

Just keep working, and everything will be okay. As long as you don't confront him, he won't hurt you. Ignore the bad things, and they can't hurt you. Breathe. Work.

Normally this worked, but my fingers froze when I heard my mother screaming back. "No," I whispered, shaking my head. "No, don't fight back."

Something shattered, something banged. Screaming, fighting, cursing.

I ripped a red wire off the motherboard and stripped it of its plastic coating, twisting the copper inside into a tangled braid.

"No, you leave her out of this!"

A crash against my door caused me to jump, shocking myself with the wire. I pulled the lollipop out of my mouth and replaced it with my slightly singed finger, staring at the door and waiting for another noise. One meant he might be finished. Another meant I needed to hide my box.

"Stupid woman," my father growled outside my door before raising his voice to a shout. "You hear that, Charlotte? Your mother is a _stupid woman!_ She should have kept her mouth shut. This is _all her fault!_ "

I wanted to help her. I wanted to fight back. I wanted to finally take the bag I had packed months ago and stored in the depths of my closet and make a run for it. I wanted, wanted, wanted. I was seventeen now, I could make it on my own. All I needed was to fix my computer, and I could make a living. I would never have to see him again.

The silence outside told me that he had finished for the night, but just to be sure, I waited until I heard his bedroom door slam close before setting my things back into their place in the box and tip-toeing back towards my own door.

When I opened it, I was unsurprised to see droplets of blood settling into the already dotted carpet. What caught my attention, though, the fact that it trailed down the hallway and around the corner of the living room. I followed the splotches from my doorway and around the corner, only to gasp in horror at the sight in front of me.

I dropped to my knees next to my mother, my shaking hands dropping the forgotten lollipop before hovering uselessly over the deep gash in her temple that leaked blood in multiple streaks down the side of her face and onto the floor. "Mom," I breathed as quietly as possible, more afraid than ever to let my father hear me. She didn't respond. "Momma..."

He killed her. He had threatened it before, but I never actually thought... I almost touched her, but decided against it at the last second while my grief shifted into something much darker.

As quickly and quietly as possible, I hurried back to my room grabbed the backpack out of my closet and slung it over my shoulder before running into the kitchen where our landline was and dialing 911. I held the phone next to my ear until I heard, "911, what's your emergency?" I set the phone on the counter and walked towards the sink, glancing inside before grabbing the knife and staring at it.

I could do it. For everything he had done to us, for what he had done to her... I _wanted_ to do it.

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

I sucked in a deep, quivering breath, not caring enough to wipe away the stinging tears trailing down my cheeks and dripping onto the counter top.

"We're sending officers to your location."

I closed my eyes and swallowed a sob, dropping the knife back into the sink with a dull thud as I backed away. No. I couldn't do it. But at least he wouldn't get away with it.

 _"Charlie?"_ A faintly familiar voice called for me, an invisible hand cupping my cheek. _"Charlie, are you with me? ... Tony, I need you back here. I can't snap any of them out of it."_

Clutching the strap of my backpack, I resisted the urge to look back to my mother and sprinted out of the house, not even bothering to closing the door behind myself as I ran.


	10. Chapter Nine

**Chapter Nine**

The night outside was cold and wet, my fast-paced footsteps slapping loudly against the puddles that had formed from the earlier rain. I ran away from that house as fast as my legs would carry me, struggling through my fear and tears to keep breathing. Soon enough things began to quiet down, and I could no longer hear my footsteps or the plinking of raindrops slipping off leaves and hitting the pavement.

My vision darkened, and a hushed voice began whispering things that, even though I couldn't hear exactly what they were saying, were comforting. One by one my senses disappeared from me- all but my hearing, and the voice grew louder with each of my slowing steps. "Charlie, can you hear me?"

Eventually I couldn't see or feel anything, but this numbness didn't last long. Slowly, light began to blur into my vision and the hands cupping my neck became more noticeable. I could feel my hands shivering uncontrollably in my lap. As my sight cleared, I saw that it wasn't an endless rainy street in front of me, but Tony kneeling with a worried expression.

I took in a shaky breath as my eyes darted around the quinjet I had somehow ended up on, taking in my surroundings. The team was scattered- Clint was in the pilot's seat, Natasha and Steve were staring at the walls on opposite sides of the jet, Thor stood towards the back with his arms crossed tightly across his chest, Bruce was huddled with his back against the wall as he clutched a blanket around himself, Tony's thumbs lightly traced my jawline as he watched me observing everybody else.

"You back with me, Tiny?" I returned my gaze to Tony's, nodding my head faintly at him. "You were pretty freaked out when I came to get you. More freaked out than I've ever seen you, even more than in Malibu... What did she show you?"

Images of... whatever it was had happened to me back there played in a seemingly endless loop in my mind. Images that I had spent a long time trying to forget. Images that forced me underground for years. Images that made me who I was today. Images I never wanted to have to see again.

Normally I could pretend that the bad things had never happened, but whatever Wanda had done to me left me unable to forget again. Normally I could play it off, but I couldn't stop the quivering of my bottom lip this time. I couldn't stop the stinging in the back of my eyes that signaled the inevitable breakdown.

Not wanting everyone to see, I closed my eyes and leaned forward to rest my head against Tony's chest while his arms slid around my back and I focused more on staying quiet than stopping myself from crying. He laid his head on top of mine, and I gripped at his sweat-stained shirt to find some type of anchor to hold on to while my chest racked with silent sobs.

"It'll be all right," Tony promised in a sigh. "We'll stop them, honey. I promise."

* * *

I had fallen asleep across Tony's lap at one point, and was woken up by the jet landing heavily with a small shake. Rubbing my tired eyes, I pushed myself up into a sitting position before waiting for Tony to stand and pull me up with him. Clint was the first one to leave the jet, opening the door and revealing that we were on a field in the middle of nowhere. "Come on," he encouraged the lot of us, motioning towards a large farmhouse down the hill from where we had landed. "I'll show you guys inside."

We followed Clint as he helped Natasha inside, much in the same way that I was holding onto Tony. All arguments between the two of us was forgotten, as I needed something to keep me from running to the nearest basement and locking myself inside and he was uncharacteristically afraid of letting go of me.

When we took the three small steps up to the front porch, Thor looked back at the land over his shoulder. "What is this place?"

"A safe house," Tony answered with a slight question in his tone.

"Let's hope." Clint pushed the front door open, patting Natasha on the shoulder before letting go of her and walking further into the house with the rest of us filing in after him. "Honey? I'm home," he called out as we made our way into a living room. A brunette woman walked around a corner with several large pieces of construction paper in her hand that she set down on a nearby coffee table. "I brought company," Clint loosely explained, gesturing towards us before walking forward and kissing her. "Sorry I didn't call ahead."

"This is an agent of some kind," Tony guessed, keeping one arm wrapped firmly around my waist and using the other to motion towards the woman.

Clint turned back to face us with one arm around the woman's shoulder. "Guys, this is Laura."

Laura chuckled, smiling at us. "I know all of your names."

I glanced at the rest of the group and saw that they were all wearing the same confused expressions before looking back to Laura, who looked nervous and a bit uncomfortable. Not wanting anyone- especially not Clint's wife- to feel that way in her own home, I smiled back and offered a small wave that she returned with a nod.

Footsteps rumbled through the hallway to our left and Clint released Laura to hold his arms out towards the sound. "Oh, incoming!" Seconds later, two children came sprinting into the room and straight into Clint's waiting arms. "Hey, sweetheart! What's up, buddy? How you guys doin'?"

"These are... _smaller_ agents."

"Did you bring Auntie Nat?" the little girl asked Clint, swinging her arms down by her side.

"Why don't you hug her and find out?" Natasha growled playfully, stepping forward and kneeling down to hug the young girl.

While Steve apologized for barging in I focused more on the happy reunion in front of me with mixed feelings of jealousy and confusion, taking a small step back and away from the laughing family.

Tony glanced down at me and lifted his hand from my waist the back of my head, brushing his fingers through my hair before looking back to Clint and Laura. "We would have called ahead, but we were busy having no idea you existed."

"Yeah, Fury helped me set this up when I joined." Clint brushed his son's hair out of his eyes before wrapping one arm over his shoulder and the other over Laura's. "I kept it off SHIELD's files, I'd like to keep it that way. I figure it's a good place to lay low."

A cracking sound called my attention to the floor, where I saw Thor sweeping a cluster of crushed Legos under the couch with his foot. When I turned back, I saw that the little girl had moved to stand in front of me and was staring up at me with her head tilted to the side. I rolled my shoulder back, not sure what to say in this situation- which was a pretty new feeling for me.

Then, she reached up and ran her fingers over the tips of my hair before her face cracked into a small smile. "I like your hair," she complimented. "It's pretty. My mom does my hair. Does your mom do your hair?"

I stumbled over my words, glancing back over my shoulder when I heard Thor storming out of the room and Steve following after him. "I- um... What's your name, sweetheart?"

"Lila."

I nodded at Lila, taking a hold of Tony's wrist to remove his hand from my hair before fiddling with the orange bracelets on my wrists and moving around the little girl. "Well, I think your hair is very pretty too, Lila. You know who loves hair? Tony," I pointed towards him. "You should ask him about his. He'll talk about it for hours."

Before she could say anything else, I worked my way through the group of people in the room and towards what looked like the kitchen. I was getting too claustrophobic with all the people chatting and smiling in there, and I needed room to breathe- to recollect my thoughts so that I could go back to happy-go-lucky Charlie instead of this depressed mess I hated being. I wonder if Laura keeps any lollipops in the kitchen.


	11. Chapter Ten

**Chapter Ten**

I stood on the front porch, watching quietly as Tony and Steve chopped wood in the middle of the vast fields that circled Clint's hidden home. Clint and his daughter Lila were on the other side of the porch, smiling and laughing as they played with her toys. The sight of him with his kid- _his kid_ , I was still reeling from that- put a warm feeling in my chest that made a smile tug at my lips. When he saw me looking, Clint winked at me and I rolled my eyes before turning back to the men in the field.

The sun was still relatively low in the sky, thanks to Clint and Laura being unable to sleep in very late and waking the rest of us up to suffer an early morning with them. It didn't bother me much, seeing as I hadn't slept very well regardless.

* * *

 _Tony came into the guest room we would be sharing a few minutes after I had already showered and changed into clothes I had borrowed from Laura. I was pulling the sheets back on the bed when he moved to stand on the other side, watching quietly. "You gonna help me or what?" I asked, glancing up at him._

" _I don't know," he shrugged. "I'd like to. But I don't think I can if you don't tell me what's wrong."_

 _I finished pulling the sheets back and mimicked his shrug. "The bed wasn't made. But now it is, so you're a little late. And now I'm going to sleep."_

 _I knew that the bed wasn't the issue he was talking about, and he knew that I knew that. But he didn't push the subject as I climbed into the bed with my back facing him, only using the sheet itself as a blanket instead of the thick comforter that rested at my feet. I always used to be freezing during the night, but thanks to the Extremis in my system I had grown considerably warmer._

 _Tony joined me in the bed, his arm pressed lightly against my back. Neither of us fell asleep right away. I knew that we could both feel the tension in the air as we refused to talk about his curiosity on what I had seen that was so rattling, or my fear and hatred that was nearly impossible to stop feeling once it had started._

 _It was a long night._

* * *

I didn't notice that I had zoned out until I saw Laura leading Tony away from the wood pile, him turning back to point at his work and say something that made Steve roll his eyes before he followed Laura to the shed on the opposite side of the house.

After he had gone inside I turned back to Steve and saw that he was watching me now. When we made eye contact, he waved me over with the hand that wasn't holding an axe. I knew that whatever he wanted to say certainly wouldn't be good, but I also had no reason to not hear him- at least for now.

I sat on the log Tony had been using as a chopping block, leaning back on my palms and crossing one leg over the other. "What's up, Cap?"

It took him a moment to answer, and when he did it was quietly- like he wanted this conversation to remain just between the two of us. "I know that you and Tony have each other's backs," he started, glancing towards the shed before returning his gaze to me. "And I'm glad. I'm glad that you two can trust each other… But I need to know that you trust more than each other. I need to know that you trust the team, and that you trust me to lead us."

"Are you gonna give me a hug if I say I do?" I joked, raising an eyebrow and planting a smirk on my face.

Steve wasn't so amused. His frown was enough to show me that he wasn't believing my charade- that he knew I was forcing the cheer in my tone and the lightheartedness in my words. I didn't care. Forcing myself to be happy was how I coped- how I made myself _actually_ happy. So for however long it took to recover from what the witch had done to me in Wakanda, I was going to be forcibly, furiously happy.

"I really need you to be serious right now," Steve pleaded. "This isn't a joking matter. There are lives at stake- not just ours, but innocent people's."

"There are always innocent lives at stake! But luckily for them, we're always there to stop the big baddy before they can get too many boo-boos."

"Charlie, please-"

"I trust you to be a good leader," I interrupted before he could ask me again to be serious. I didn't want to be serious. I _hated_ being serious. Serious attitude led to serious thoughts led to dark places. I was tired of the dark places. "But I don't trust you to be a good leader by yourself. You're too logical- you never just act."

I could tell he was trying not to scoff or be angry with me when he replied. " _Just acting_ is what got us into this mess."

"I also don't trust a man who never accepts candy when I offer it to him," I finished, ignoring his last statement. "… Maybe I don't trust you all that much, after all. You should have asked if I liked you instead. You probably would have gotten a better answer. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to enjoy a nice lunch before trying yet again to save a thankless world."

"You can't end a war before it begins," Steve warned as I stood, no longer feeling comfortable with how our conversation had gone.

"Then I suppose it's a good thing we started it," I retorted, glancing at the angry twitch on Steve's expression as I walked away. "You're welcome, Captain."

It probably wasn't a good idea to provoke him, but it was the only form of communication I thought I could handle right now. I wouldn't let his bad mood make mine worse. Happy thoughts, I said to myself over and over in my head. _Happy thoughts._

When I glanced at the shed and saw Tony walking out with a familiar face following closely behind him, I actually felt a flicker of _real_ happiness. Shoving all negativity to the back of my brain I broke into a sprint towards the barn, brushing past a very confused looking Tony as I engulfed the man in black in a tight hug with a happy shout. "Patches! I thought you were dead!"

Fury didn't return my hug, instead placing one firm hand on my shoulder with a squeeze before pulling back from the embrace. "Charlie," he greeted in his usual gruff tone. "Nice to see not everyone is upset that I'm still breathing."

One look at Tony's face was enough to tell me that he and Fury had obviously had an unpleasant conversation while I had been busy having my own with Steve. "But that's not why I'm here," Fury continued, nodding towards the house.

I saw Clint stand on the porch, wrapping his arms around his two kids and leading them back inside after spotting the three of us approaching. Fury's sudden appearance could only mean one thing- things were about to get a lot worse than they already were.

Perfect.

* * *

 **My sincerest apologies for taking** _ **months**_ **to update! For a while I was trying to finish up my other stories, then I simply lost motivation to write it, got caught up in new stories… It was quite a vicious cycle.**

 **I do want to finish this story before Civil War comes out, however, so I've finally resolved to sit down and make myself write. Of course I'm still juggling schoolwork and a job, so I can't promise the updates will be as frequent as some of you might hope, but they** _ **will**_ **come.**


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